Europe Sweeps Awards
Four European-based recipients to be honored 4 December in London at third annual dinner

(21 November 2017 – New York City & London) – Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) announced today the three recipients of the third annual Better Satellite World Awards. The awards, established in support of the industry’s global awareness campaign, honor established companies along with disruptive innovators who make the world a more prosperous, healthier, better-educated, sustainable and inclusive home for humankind. The awards demonstrate the indispensable nature of space and the satellite to modern life. An international jury selected three European organizations this year, the first time Europe has swept the award. The DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, MEOLUT Next and Teledyne e2v were each named. In addition, ESA’s Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, Mrs. Magali Vaissiere, was named by SSPI’s United Kingdom chapter as its Personality of the Year. The recipients will be honored at the Better Satellite World Awards Dinner on 4 December at London’s One Whitehall Place.

“The Better Satellite World campaign tells the incredible story of our technology's contributions to life on Earth,” said SSPI Executive Director Robert Bell. “Once each year, we gather in London to honor organizations and individuals in person to recognize them for saving lives, expanding knowledge, creating prosperity and improving the way we live.” The international trade media has partnered with SSPI on the campaign to further promote the constant stream of stories produced by SSPI and its partners throughout the year.

According to SSPI, recipients for the Better Satellite World Awards were evaluated in three categories. These were humanitarian achievement; distribution of knowledge for the improvement of living standards; and governance and commerce.

The selection of the recipients for the Better Satellite World Awards was made by an international jury consisting of a broad cross-section of industry thought leaders and distinguished professionals. This year, the jury and the UK chapter decided to extend an honorable mention to British Telecom for its Sustainable Business programme, which is active in the SOS Children’s Villages in Africa and SatSure Analytics India Pvt. Ltd. for its attempt to archive satellite images for the purpose of helping farmers in India use data more effectively as they confront rapid technological disruption in their agricultural sector, which has led to thousands of farms collapsing and, according to press reports, 12,000 suicides. The Better Satellite World Awards Dinner in London is produced by SSPI and its UK and Isle of Man Chapters, with the support of international law firm Milbank as well as Globecomm, Phasor, Arianespace, ManSat, and Walton De-Ice.

The Better Satellite World Award Recipients:

The DStv Eutelsat Star Awards
The DStv Eutelsat Star Awards were initiated in 2010 by Eutelsat in partnership with its long-term African video client MultiChoice. The program is a pan-African competition designed to expose young people throughout the continent to satellite technology and its potential for advancement in Africa. During the contest, students aged 14 to 19 are encouraged to analyze the practical applications of the scientific principles they learn in school with the intention of envisioning new ways satellite technology can serve their continent’s specific needs. Each year’s competition focuses around a new topic with students submitting essays and posters describing their ideas. The winners receive a free trip to Paris to visit Eutelsat and travel on to French Guiana to visit the European spaceport and see a satellite go into space. Eutelsat and MultiChoice maintain strong ties with the winners, encouraging them to become advocates and ambassadors for satellite technology locally and across the continent. As of 2017, the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards have received over 5,000 entries from across the continent and awarded winners from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

MEOLUT Next
A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space is combining 40 years of experience and a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales Alenia Space architects design and deliver high technology solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments, institutions and companies rely on Thales Alenia Space to design, operate and deliver satellite-based systems that help them position and connect anyone or anything everywhere, to help observe our planet and help optimize the use of our planet's – and our solar system’s – resources. Thales Alenia Space believes in space as humankind’s new horizon, which will enable us to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth.

MEOLUT Next is Thales Alenia Space’s newest contribution to satellite search and rescue efforts to save more lives. It is a 2-meter compact phased array antenna that may be deployed on a rooftop without the need for additional heavy infrastructure. The MEOLUT Next is stationary and requires no electric motors to run, allowing it to operate with minimal maintenance. It is capable of tracking signals from all MEO satellites within view of it, allowing it to detect distress signals from up to 5,000 km away. The MEOLUT Next is part of the Cospas/Sarsat free global search and rescue service, transmitting detected distress signals immediately to those who can help. MEOLUT Next first model was certified by Cospas-Sarsat in 2016, the first to be certified world-wide, and has been operated by the French government since. In July of 2017, a MEOLUT Next antenna picked up the distress beacon of a small sailing boat off the coast of Sardinia, well outside of VHF radio and other communication ranges. Within 5 minutes, the MEOLUT Next’s signal bursts had pinpointed the boat’s location well enough for rescue crews to save its three passengers within hours.

Teledyne e2v
Teledyne e2v is a global manufacturer, headquartered in England, that designs, develops and manufactures space-qualified imagers and arrays, semiconductors, and other products. The company has designed and built cameras for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta comet mission, the Peruvian government’s PerúSAT-1 and NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. Located across Europe, Asia and the Americas, Teledyne e2v has been involved in many technological and innovation breakthroughs and has forged many successful industry partnerships. In addition to space-based applications, Teledyne e2v provides imaging sensors and custom camera solutions for the machine vision market as well as healthcare, industrial and defense uses. The company’s e2v sensors are also critical components in NASA satellites such as OMPs (Ozone monitoring platforms) and satellites made in China, Japan and many other countries.

Teledyne e2v’s visual image sensors have played a key role in helping us learn more about the long-term health of our planet, embedded as part of many Earth observation satellites, including those of the Sentinel and Earth Explorer programs. The sensors deliver highly detailed images for resource, disaster and ocean monitoring, and land mapping. This data can then be used to inform government and private industry environmental policy to help protect Earth’s future. Teledyne e2v’s sensors will also play a vital role in the European Space Agency’s upcoming FLEX satellite mission that will map vegetation and improve our understanding of how carbon moves between plants and the atmosphere. New Teledyne e2v sensors on Sentinels 4 and 5 will monitor air quality and the ozone layer and new meteorological satellites such as MTG, which will provide improved data on weather patterns.

About the Better Satellite World Campaign
Working with partner associations and dozens of supporting companies around the world, Space & Satellite Professionals International’s Better Satellite World campaign (www.bettersatelliteworld.com) is changing the global conversation about satellites and their influence on the economy, business and societies everywhere. The campaign was launched in Washington, DC during SATELLITE 2015. It has since become a cornerstone and a viral effort that is successfully communicating the incredible power of satellites for human good.

SSPI has published a series of stories and videos that dramatize the immense contributions of the “invisible infrastructure” of satellite to life on Earth, which are widely shared by individuals, companies and the media. The Better Satellite World campaign is available for repurposing by any organization or person who wishes to use the content to help promote the industry at www.bettersatelliteworld.com and through the Twitter hashtag #bettersatelliteworld.

About SSPI
Founded in 1983, Space & Satellite Professionals International (www.sspi.org) is on a mission to make the space and satellite industry one of the world’s best at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation. With more than 4,000 members in +40 nations, it is the largest space and satellite industry association in the world. It delivers on its mission through a portfolio of programs:

Next Generation – Staging competitions and sharing information with university students to excite them about careers in space and satellite.

Leaders Quest – Identifying and honoring present and future leaders as models for the industry to follow.

New Century Workforce – Engaging talent management executives in the space and satellite company executives in improving hiring and retention practices and winning the industry’s fair share of the world’s best and brightest.